Breaking Ground, founded in 2006, is an organization that partners with Cameroonian communities to achieve lasting solutions to their self-identified needs by investing in local knowledge, empowering women, and promoting economic development.

Our various community initiatives, including our agricultural investment program, womens' entrepreneurial classes, and girls' soccer initiatives, work to improve Cameroonian livelihoods concerning various issues such as women's empowerment, girls leadership, HIV education and behavior change, and health and water sanitation. Breaking Ground's success is based on our idea of turning sustainable solutions into local dreams - we believe that a community project can only effectively address the needs of a population if it is conceived, planned, and implemented by the community for whom it is intended.

Since 2006, we have worked with 30 communities and directly impacted the lives of 55,000 people. More than 400 girls have participated in our soccer program, which empowers young women and teaches leadership and conflict resolution skills. In recent years, 500 rural women were trained in business skills through our economic empowerment programs, 78 received loans to purchase fertilizer and improved seed varieties, and 40 started investing in cash crops that were previously considered to be “men’s work.”

Ultimately, we believe that a project’s long-term sustainability is reliant on the deep-seated investment by the local population. This investment cannot be fostered through the work of a foreign entity, like ourselves, but must develop organically through a collective recognition of the identified problem and a commitment to solve it.

In lieu of a compactor, students in Doumbouo dance to prepare their floors for cementing. More videos >

Welcome to Breaking Ground

Cameroonians know best what their own communities need. Breaking Ground is a non-profitorganization that is committed to grassroots action, sustainability, and community empowerment.

Through networks of friends, families, co-workers, and even perfect strangers, we raise money to support sustainable, community-based projects in Cameroon.Learn More about our work.